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PLANET CENTRED FORUM – OUR NEW STRATEGY

Seminar series completed: ‘topic workshops’ or ‘conversations’ now offered!

Why? Three reasons: –

Although our previous seminars in London, Oxfordshire and West Midlands with thought provoking presenters have been highly rated, they have proved both expensive and energy consuming to bring together.

As concerns for our planet and about our life choices become more mainstream there are now a wide range of conferences, seminars and presentations available, both in real time and on line.

Despite the time for questions usually included at these events the main energy flows are in one direction, with most attenders consuming and digesting infortmation.

The new invitation to our network allies and contacts is to contribute some of their time and wisdom to one or more ‘topic workshops’ or ‘conversations’ capable of developing new thinking in any of these areas. The method of collaborating could be any combination of email exchanges, skyping, social media or face to face meetings as each conversation decides.

The initial list of suggested topics or themes is: –

Food, including Agriculture and Permaculture. Also including our concerns about the vulnerability of the food supply – especially to the big cities?

Growth of mega-cities. Is this inevitable, or only so in the current economic model? They certainly separate humans from non-human ecosystems. Are small towns viable, or indeed any better than mega-cities?

How do the cultural changes of the 20th and 21st Centuries affect the natural world? What is the connection between human cultural diversity and bio-diversity? [Note: this conversation is now under way.]

Tourism; Aviation; ‘Eco-tourism’.

What are the greatest threats to our living planet? Are climate change and the extinction rate separate threats or inextricably linked?

United Nations and other international bodies: are they a help or a hindrance?

Young people: how do we engage? Are (some of them) so accustomed to the present situation (the virtual world) that they are indifferent to more than human ecology?

Other topic conversations are not ruled out.

In each case it is suggested that one or more colleagues motivated to address a topic might act as convenor(s), inviting some others to respond to their invitations. These ‘topic leaders’ need not be PCF moderators.

Alongside the project work now proposed the Web Site will be developed to include a wider range of contributions, plus our ‘now and then’ Bulletins will report on events within and beyond the PCF network.